Aston Villa dealt fresh injury concern ahead of rearranged Liverpool clash

Aston Villa have been handed another injury concern less than two weeks before Liverpool make the trip to Villa Park. The Reds were due to play Unai Emery’s side in the Premier League on Saturday, March 15 in an early kick-off but the game has been rescheduled following Liverpool’s progress into the Carabao Cup final.

The fixture will now take place on Wednesday, February 19, kicking off at 7.30pm. It adds to an already-busy schedule for Arne Slot’s side who are preparing to face Everton this Wednesday after the Merseyside derby was postponed in December due to high winds in Liverpool which raised concerns over supporter safety.

Liverpool now face Everton, Wolves, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Newcastle United in a two-week period in what could prove to be decisive as they battle Arsenal for the Premier League title.

Villa handed new concern

Ahead of the visit of Liverpool next week, Villa have been dealt a new injury worry with Ezri Konsa forced off during a 2-1 FA Cup win over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday evening. The defender pulled up with what appeared to be a muscle injury as he received treatment before walking off. While being treated, he thumped the ground in frustration.

Villa were already without Tyrone Mings after he suffered a knee injury against West Ham while Pau Torres is also out and not due back until March. He would likely have been in line to face the Reds had the fixture not been moved forward.

Lamare Bogarde replaced Konsa on Sunday and giving an update on the injury, Emery said: "We weren’t thinking to be playing against Tottenham with Bogarde and Kamara. Both are more central midfielders than centre-backs. Hopefully we can recover quickly Pau Torres and Tyrone Mings. As well Axel Disasi for next week if everything goes well. For Konsa, hopefully it is not a big injury."

Liverpool’s current injury woes

The Reds are currently without Trent Alexander-Arnold and Tyler Morton while Joe Gomez was forced off just 10 minutes into Sunday’s surprise FA Cup defeat at the hands of Plymouth Argyle.

Morton is expected to be out for a number of weeks while Alexander-Arnold’s progress is being monitored closely after he was forced off in the 2-0 win at Bournemouth. Asked about the right-back’s injury, Slot said last week: "No, I don't think so yet. That's going to be too early for him. Difficult to say [about the Merseyside derby]. Like I said before, it's not going to take months and not even weeks but that's only three days after the Plymouth Argyle game, so let's wait and see if he is available. We also have to look at the long term, of course we don't want to take any risks with so many games afterwards coming up. But if he's fit then of course we will use him."

With Gomez, Liverpool are awaiting further tests, with more clarity on his injury likely to come before Wednesday’s clash at Everton. Curtis Jones was on the bench against Plymouth but was not fit enough to come on as Slot said: “That was a bit of a blow [Gomez’s injury] because Curtis Jones was on the bench but came to me this morning and said: ‘I don’t think he was fully recovered from the training session yesterday’. We were left with a few more youngsters on the pitch which wasn’t the idea before the game but, still, there was enough quality on the pitch to get a better result than this.”

In other news, Slot did not regret rotating his team after the Reds were dumped out of the FA Cup by Plymouth.